In the matter of Rhode Island Public Employees’ Retiree Coalition et al v. Lincoln Chafee et al, the Supreme Court today declined to intervene in the union and coalition lawsuits against the state regarding the Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011.

Attorneys for the state had petitioned the Supreme Court for a stay of the Superior Court proceedings before Associate Justice Sarah Taft-Carter and had asked the high court to review Judge Taft-Carter’s decision not to recuse from the case.

The Court noted the substantial public interest in the pension case, “requiring the resolution of complex questions of constitutional law, the speedy, effective, and efficient determination of which is of incalculable importance to all of the state’s citizens.”

“When measured against such weighty concerns,” the Court said, “the necessity of immediate review of the trial justice’s careful decision declining to recuse from this case – as well as of inevitable future rulings in this litigation which are certain to be disputed or controversial – appears less compelling.”

The state’s petitions were intermediate steps in the overall lawsuits. The Supreme Court’s decision today means the case will return to the Superior Court for further proceedings.

Judge Taft-Carter is expected to hold a hearing at 9:30 a.m. Friday, December 7, in Providence County Superior Court on other motions related to the case.

Rhode Island’s $7 billion+ pension fund — which is banking on an expected rate of return of 7.5 percent to pay its long-term obligations — earned just 1.4 percent over the fiscal year that ended June 30.

State Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who chairs the state Investment Commission and sparked the move last year to lower the pension fund’s expected rate of return, says she doesn’t think the state’s expected 7.5 percent rate of return is too optimistic. In an interview, she said: